[MacDV] do I buy this G4?

[Zane H. Healy]

>I am making a video film for a graduate project (a very large
>project) and I found someone selling a G4 for $825.  It
>sounds good but I'm not that savy, can you tell me if it's
>worth it.  Here's the specs:
>
>1.25GB RAM
>3X80 GB hard drives
>400MHZ cpu
>ATI Radeon 8500 Graphics card
>cd/dvd rom
>zip 100 drive
>dual boot OS 9.2.2/10.2.8 intalled
>
>That's what I know and I would really appreciate any feedback.

That's about as low end as you can get on G4's (wasn't there a 350Mhz 
lowend introduced sometime after they were initially released?), 
though the RAM HD's and Graphics card have all been upgraded.

I agree with the comment that it seems a bit high priced.  Plus, 
without a Superdrive (DVD Burner) you won't be able to burn your 
project out to DVD.

Then there is the speed issue, a 400Mhz G4 really isn't fast enough 
for Video.  I used my G4/450 AGP for over 4 years, and never 
attempted to use it for video work, one of the two reasons I upgraded 
to a G5 2x2 a few months ago was to do video work, the other was 
because Adobe InDesign 2.0 was so sluggish on the G4/450!

Others can comment better on what speed G4 is realistic for video 
work.  I'd recommend figuring that out, and go for a system of that 
speed that has a Superdrive.

Oh, the one nice thing about the system is that it does have 3 80GB 
HD's, that's perfect for video as you can have 1 system disk, 1 
capture disk, and 1 encode disk.

			Zane


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| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
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